Red Barn Theater Review of “Murder for Two” : Mad actors in manic roles a joy to watch

By Joanna Brady

Murder for Two, playing to enthusiastic audiences at the Red Barn, will be keeping theater-goers laughing through Feb. 12.

The show is a musical about murder. If resemblances to Sweeney Todd spring to mind, you can quickly dismiss them. It’s more like The Mystery of Irma Vepp or Ionesco’s theater of the absurd. This is a comedy, as zany and manic as you can get, and probably the most fun you can have with your clothes on.

The plot—reminiscent of an Agatha Christie cozy mystery–is almost incidental. Written by Joe Kinosian and Kellen Blair, it revolves around the question of who killed a despised novelist named Arthur Whitney in a spooky New England mansion the night of his surprise birthday party. Attending the party are the victim’s vengeful wife, his sleazy psychiatrist, his niece—a student criminologist—a cranky old couple who live nearby, a late arriving fireman, 3 kids from a 12-boy choir, and a ballerina.

Sound like a big cast? Well, no, actually, they’re all played by Joe Kinosian, who wrote the book and music. A talented comedian and musician, Kinosian takes his turn at the piano and sings when he isn’t one of the diverse people who aren’t there.

The other real person is Marcus, a wannabe detective, who stumbles on the scene with Lou, another cop—who is invisible—a character who says nothing, but has ties to what goes on. The whole play takes place with the victim’s body lying on the floor in everyone’s way; or so we’re reminded.

As this one act play winds down, the ‘characters’ point out that there is only one among them who was not featured in Arthur Whitney’s novels. And that the psychiatrist at the party, who was shrink to all but one person there, had broken patient confidentiality and fed their stories to the writer. Whitney, it seems, had many enemies, so motives abound.

It takes a few minutes to catch on to the rhythm of this play with its multiple personalities. But once you ‘get’ it, Joe Kinosian’s campy acting is so well done, you ‘see’ these other people on stage as well as you hear them. It’s theater of the mind—much like old-time radio shows.

Kinosian is a chameleon the whole time he’s on stage, frenetically characterizing the invisible by changing voices and postures for each character, playing the piano, singing, dancing, leaping. A demanding role.

Complementing the considerable talents of Kinosian is straight man Noel Carey, who is lower key, but also an excellent comic. Playing the role of Marcus, the police officer, he provides just the right foil for Kinosian as the two sing several wacky duets and play the piano together.

Directing invisible people has to be a challenge for any director. J.Scott Lapp has innumerable productions to his credit and has won a number of awards for his work, so he was certainly up to the task. As the hilarious results show, he has managed the loony delirium of it all very well.

This play won the Joseph Jefferson Award for best new musical work in Chicago a few years back, and has also had considerable success off-Broadway. This show is a perfect blend of music, mayhem and murder. Don’t miss it.

Murder for Two plays at the Red Barn at 319 Duval St. (Rear) through Feb.12. Showtime is 8:00 p.m. Call 305-296-9911 or go to www.redbarntheatre.com for tickets.

(Joanna Brady is a Key West writer, author of The Woman at the Light, a historical novel of Key West published by St. Martin’s Press)

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